Aurora director defends deaths

An Aurora director has defended the killing of alleged illegal miners at the mine's Grootvlei operations, saying this was about protecting the company's assets. "It is simple... if you go out there and steal gold, should I just go down on my knees and pray? It doesn't work like that. We have to protect our assets," Aurora Empowerment Systems commercial director Thulani Ngubane told Sapa on Friday.

He said in telephone interview the "illegal" miners were trying to gain underground access by force. "They (the men) had guns and everything... these illegal miners got shot going down underneath by force. Tell me what more our security could have done?" Ngubane asked. "It's not as if our people were lunatics and just went crazy. Somewhere, somehow, something needed to happen so there would be a stop to everything."

The police pulled out the bodies of four people on Thursday following reports speculating that up to 20 miners could have been shot dead by security guards at the mine, which is co-owned by President Jacob Zuma's nephew Khulubuse Zuma and Nelson Mandela's grandson Zondwa Mandela. "It was not the first time that a shooting took place," said Ngubane. "One of our security cars has got bullet holes because of the resistance of illegal miners. I can show you ugly photos of the cars that had got bullet holes."

Ngubane said the men were armed with guns and were "there for the challenge". He said it was clear that they would have resisted by force if security officials tried to stop them from going underground. "It's not a right thing that people should come and try and invade our mine and steal our gold by force."

Ngubane said all mining houses struggled to deal with the problem of "illegal miners". "How do you manage thugs? It's a problem."

A lawyer representing the security guards, Piet du Plessis, told Sapa that the guards did not act unlawfully. "There are allegations about people being shot point blank... it is pure, total nonsense and our people did not act unlawfully," said Du Plessis. The security guards were cooperating with the police, he added, declining to give more details. But Du Plessis did say that the police were already informed "about the fact that a shooting occurred and that injuries and/or death may have ensued" on Monday.

The Sowetan newspaper, which broke the story on Thursday, said the security company did not inform the police. It also quoted a survivor as saying he heard policemen saying to each other in Afrikaans, "skiet almal [shoot everybody]" before they opened fire. "The SA Police Service was also informed of the fact that the unlawful miners were armed and that suspected explosives were seen in the shaft where the incident occurred," said Du Plessis. He said the police arrested six illegal miners on the scene on Monday.

Police spokeswoman Colonel Noxolo Kweza said she could not immediately confirm the information. The police said they started searching for bodies on Thursday after the report appeared in the Sowetan newspaper. Four bodies were recovered. The police continued the search on Friday but said they could not find more bodies. Police officers were on the scene, trying to figure out what exactly happened at the mine this week. "We are busy investigating," said Kweza.

Source: Times Live

Remaining Aurora workers go on strike

The last remaining 100 workers or so have gone on strike at cash-strapped miner, Aurora’s Grootvlei Mine in Springs. Trade union Solidarity spokesman, Jaco Kleynhans, said workers responsible for carrying out care and maintenance at the mine had gone on a full-blown strike from today. “The workers are angry because they have not been paid their salaries for February,” Mr Kleynhans said.

Aurora Empowerment Systems bought the mine from Pamodzi Liquidators last year but they company has been unable to pay an owed amount of R207m to Pamodzi for months. There was a strike in April at Aurora’s mines over unpaid wages for January, February and March. The company has also failed to make unemployment insurance fund payments for its staff.

Solidarity has had notified Aurora’s management of the employee’s dissatisfaction in writing last week, but has not received any response from them yet. The 100-or-so remaining workers had stayed behind to carry out maintenance work after other 2900-odd workers left the company to work elsewhere.

General secretary of Solidarity, Gideon Du Plessis, said the workers were not being insured by Aurora. He said they worked under extremely dangerous circumstances and, in terms, of the Compensation for Occasional Injuries and Diseases Act of 1993, the mine was required to take out the necessary insurance for its employees. Du Plessis said the strike could have a negative impact on the environment and the mine itself. "If the pumping out of contaminated mine water is not resumed this week, the Grootvlei Mine as an asset could be destroyed as a whole,” he said.

Aurora spokesman Thulani Ngubane said only one worker had incited the others to strike. He said other workers would be employed to take care of the maintenance of the mine because it was such a valuable asset. "The Grootvlei mine is a national asset. So they must understand that if they strike they could cause over 3,000 jobs to be lost in the future," he said. Aurora has said it wants to list on the JSE by the end of August so that it can “open a channel for funding from Swiss investment firm, GEMS”.

Source: Business Day